Latest deaths come as humanitarian workers and doctors in Gaza say they have been overwhelmed by almost daily ‘mass casualty incidents’
Here are some of the latest images coming through from Gaza:
On Tuesday, the European Union force patrolling the Red Sea told AFP that three people were killed and at least two injured - including a Russian electrician who lost a leg - in the attack on the Eternity C.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Mohammed Baraka asks von der Leyen for help, saying he is stranded in Cairo without residency rights
A Palestinian man who worked for the EU in Gaza has appealed to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, after the closure of his office left him in Cairo without a job or residency rights.
Mohammed Baraka, who served at the EU border assistance mission at Rafah in southern Gaza and was evacuated to Egypt when the war broke out, has accused Brussels officials of “coldly” dismissing him from his job by email and “abandoning” a loyal employee.
Continue reading...Comments suggest obstacle to Trump’s wish to announce deal during Netanyahu’s Washington visit
Progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza has been slow, officials in Qatar say, dashing hopes of a rapid end to hostilities in the devastated Palestinian territory.
The new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday, after both sides accepted a broad US-sponsored outline of a deal for an initial 60-day ceasefire that could lead to a permanent end to the 21-month conflict.
Continue reading...US leader upbeat on Gaza ceasefire prospects but does not share any additional details on preparations
Benjamin Netanyahu told Donald Trump that he would nominate him for the Nobel peace prize on Monday, as the two leaders met for the first time since the US launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear program as part of a short-lived war between Israel and Iran.
Trump was expected to press Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Israel’s 21-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza amid an outcry over the humanitarian cost of an offensive that has led to nearly 60,000 deaths, most of them Palestinian.
Continue reading...Military ordered to turn ruins of Rafah into ‘humanitarian city’ but experts call the plan an internment camp for all Palestinians in Gaza
Israel’s defence minister has laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah, in a scheme that legal experts and academics described as a blueprint for crimes against humanity.
Israel Katz said he has ordered Israel’s military to prepare for establishing a camp, which he called a “humanitarian city”, on the ruins of the city of Rafah, Haaretz newspaper reported.
Continue reading...Staff at former UK PM’s institute took part in calls as proposal led by US consulting firm and Israeli business people evolved
Tony Blair’s thinktank worked with a project developing a postwar Gaza plan that included the creation of a “Trump Riviera” and a manufacturing zone named after Elon Musk.
The project, led by Israeli business people and using financial models developed by the US consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG), was developed against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s vision of taking over the Palestinian territory and transforming it into a resort.
Continue reading...Joint attack on Iran puts Israeli PM in powerful position as he dangles prospect of Trump-brokered ceasefire deal
Donald Trump will host Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC on Monday as the US president seeks again to broker a peace deal in Gaza and the Israeli prime minister takes a victory lap through the Oval Office after a joint military campaign against Iran and a series of successful strikes against Tehran and its proxies in the Middle East.
Netanyahu and Trump have a complex personal relationship – and Trump openly vented frustration at him last month during efforts to negotiate a truce with Iran – but the two have appeared in lockstep since the US launched a bombing run against Iran’s nuclear programme, fulfilling a key goal for Israeli war planners.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu travels to Washington as momentum gathers in negotiations for a US-sponsored deal
Israeli warplanes launched a wave of strikes in Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 38 Palestinians, according to hospital officials, as talks over a ceasefire in the devastated territory reached a critical point.
Officials at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said 18 people were killed by strikes in al-Mawasi, a nearby coastal area that is crowded with tented encampments of those displaced by fighting elsewhere.
Continue reading...Hopes that pause to the killing may be agreed were boosted despite 24 Palestinians being killed including 10 seeking aid
Israel has continued to launch waves of airstrikes in Gaza, hours after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.
The announcement by the militant Islamist organisation increased hopes that a deal may be done within days to pause the killing in Gaza and possibly end the near 21-month conflict.
Continue reading...Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is ‘destroying heritage and history and culture’, says curator Ayşe Göknur Shanal. Her show is ‘trying to protect and preserve’
As long as you can hear a beat or someone singing, you can dabke.
“The official definition, if there is one for dabke, is when a group of people dance together, usually in a synchronised way,” Derek Halawa says.
Continue reading...Officials say about 90 people killed since Wednesday night as Israeli security cabinet prepares for meeting
Israel has escalated its offensive in Gaza before imminent talks about a ceasefire, with warships and artillery launching one of the deadliest and most intense bombardments in the devastated Palestinian territory for many months.
Medics and officials in Gaza reported that about 90 people were killed overnight and on Thursday, including many women and children. On Tuesday night and Wednesday the toll was higher, they said. Casualties included Marwan al-Sultan, a cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, who died in an airstrike that also killed his wife and five children.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Experts say use of heavy munition in Monday’s strike that killed dozens may constitute a war crime
The Israeli military used a 500lb (230kg) bomb – a powerful and indiscriminate weapon that generates a massive blast wave and scatters shrapnel over a wide area – when it attacked a target in a crowded beachfront cafe in Gaza on Monday, evidence seen by the Guardian has revealed.
Experts in international law said the use of such a munition despite the known presence of many unprotected civilians, including children, women and elderly people, was almost certainly unlawful and may constitute a war crime.
Continue reading...Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle and Mike Leigh among signatories to letter criticising Jewish Chronicle ties
More than 400 stars and media figures including Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle, Juliet Stevenson and Mike Leigh have signed a letter to BBC management calling for the removal of a board member, Robbie Gibb, over claims of conflict of interest regarding the Middle East.
The signatories also include 111 BBC journalists and Zawe Ashton, Khalid Abdalla, Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and the historian William Dalrymple, who express “concerns over opaque editorial decisions and censorship at the BBC on the reporting of Israel/Palestine”.
Continue reading...Women, children and elderly people among at least 24 killed by attack that turned beach spot into scene of carnage
Witnesses have described the bloody aftermath of an Israeli strike on a crowded seaside cafe in Gaza, which left at least 24 dead and many more injured.
Al-Baqa cafe, close to the harbour in Gaza City, was almost full in the early afternoon on Tuesday when it was hit by a missile, immediately transforming a scene of relative calm amid the biggest urban centre in Gaza into one of carnage.
Continue reading...Scores of Palestinians reported killed as senior Netanyahu adviser due to arrive in Washington for ceasefire talks
Israel ramped up its offensive in Gaza on Monday, with new displacement orders sending tens of thousands of people fleeing the north of the devastated territory and waves of airstrikes killing about 60 Palestinians, according to local officials and medical staff.
The violence in Gaza came as a senior adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, was due to arrive in Washington for talks on a new ceasefire, a day after Donald Trump called in a social media post for a deal to end the 20-month war and free 50 hostages held by Hamas.
Continue reading...Israeli forces urge people to evacuate eastern areas before ‘military operations that will escalate and intensify’
Tens of thousands of Palestinians were fleeing eastern parts of Gaza City in the north of the territory on Sunday after Israel warned of a major offensive.
The messages on social media from the Israel Defense Forces warned of “military operations [that] will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city centre to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organisations” and directed those living in several crowded neighbourhoods to al-Mawasi, a coastal area much further south that is already overcrowded and has very limited facilities.
Continue reading...Iran’s armed forces chief of staff says it is ‘ready to respond with force’ if attacked again; Iran says airstrikes on Evin prison killed at least 71
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks have killed at least 14 people, including three children, so far on Sunday.
Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency that 13 people were killed in airstrikes at four locations around the Gaza Strip, and another from Israeli gunfire near an aid distribution centre.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
Emirates extended its cancellation of flights to and from Iran’s capital Tehran until July 5 due to the “regional situation“, it said in a statement on Saturday, Reuters reports.
The Dubai-based airline said it will recommence operations to Baghdad on 1 July and Basra on 2 July.
Continue reading...Israel Defense Forces to examine growing evidence of shootings of Palestinians trying to obtain food
The Israeli military has launched an investigation into possible war crimes following growing evidence that troops have deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians gathering to receive aid in Gaza.
Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks after being subjected to air attacks, shootings and bombardments by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while waiting for food to be distributed or while making their way to distribution sites.
Continue reading...Attack at market is latest in series by Israeli forces that have killed hundreds of civilians seeking aid
Eighteen people have been killed in an Israeli strike targeting Palestinian police distributing flour in a market in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, medical officials have said.
The reported strike, on Thursday afternoon, is the latest in a series of air attacks, shootings and bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that has killed hundreds of desperate civilians seeking aid in the devastated Palestinian territory.
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